Refrigerator



(No Model.)

LA. J. CHASE.

REFRIGBRATDR.

Paten-ted Aug. 19

llnrrrno Sra'rns Parenti @erica ANDREXV J. CHASE, ,OF BOSTON,MASSACHUSETTS.

REFRIGERATOR.

EPECIFICATIQN forming part of Letters Patent No. 303,805, dated August19, 1884.

(No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ANDREW J. CHASE, a citizen oi' the United States,residing at Boston, Massachusetts, have invented new and usefulImprovements in Refrigerators, of which the following is aspecification.

This invention relates to improvements in that method of refrigerationwherein the heat is absorbed by a cooling agent-such as gas or commonair-when passed through vacuum pipes or cylinders, to absorb heat inproportion to the extent of rarefaction or expansion oi' the controlledgas or air.

The objects of my invention are to avoid the use of a blower to obtain acirculation of air through. the preserving-chamber and over the vacuumpipes or cylinders; to avoid the employment of a water-spray to producea sheet ofice on the pipes; to provide novel means wlicreby an automaticcirculation of inclosed and conned air is effected through thepreserving-chamber and the refrigerating-ehamber, in which the pipes orcylinders are arranged :for the passage of the cooling agent, such ascompressed and cooled volatile gas, common air, or non-congealablepickle; to provide such an arrangement of pipes or cylinders in therefrigerating-chamber that if it becomes necessary they can be utilizedto support ice as the refrigerating agent, and to provide in sucharrangement means for the collection and escape of the drippings fromthe ice or from the-condensed moisture, to prevent the same from fallingupon the il'oor of the preservingchamber. These objects I accomplish inthe manner and by the means hereinafter `described and claimed,reference being had to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure I isa vertical sectional view illustrating my improved refrigerator, andFig. 2 a sectional view showing pieces of ice in the receiver formed bythe pipes.

. tel'erring to the drawings, the numbers I indicate the walls of anapartment or chamber, 2, to be refrigerated, such walls being insulated,as at 3, through the medium of any suit able material,to providenon-conducting walls. In the upper portion ofthe apartment or chamber 2is the refrigeratiiig-chamber 4, creat-ed by the vertical wall 5 andbottom inclined wall, 6, each being double, and insulated by suitablematerial, as at 7, to provide non-heatcondueting partitions, whichterminate adjacent tothe top wall and one or' the side walls of thepreserving apartment or chamber, as at 8 and 9, for circulation oi' theinclosed air. In the refrigerating-chamber are two series of pipes, 10,arranged horizontally or otherwise one above the other in verticalarray, and a horizontal line of pipes, ll, arranged one beside theother, the whole constituting a boxlike receiver for ice. The horizontalline of pipes is above and adjacent to the inclined bottom wall of thereiligeratingchamber, which wall is provided at its outer edge with ailange, l2, whereby a drip-pan is created to receive and carry oft"drippings from any ice that may be placed in the receiver or fromcondensed, moisture, thus preventing the same from en teringthepreservi11g-room. The pipes l() are arranged in vertical lines oneabove the other, in order that when they give up the frozen moisture ontheir surfaces the drip shall be from one to the other to avoidspatterin. The pipes may be of any suitable form, or they may becylinders or the like, arranged as shown, and are to be connected withthemeans used to produce cold-such as a supply of volatile gas, as etheror ammonia, or of common air-which, when compressed and cooled andallowed to expand into the vacuum pipes or cylinders, will absorb heatin proportion to the extent of rarefaction or expansion of thecontrolled gas or air; but, if desired, the pipes can be connected withany suitable pumps for forcing the refrigeratin g agent through thepipes. As the .manner of delivering a refrigerant to and circulating itthrough pipes in refrigerating apparatus is well. known, I do not deemit essential to illustrate any particular mechanism for accomplishingsuch object.

rIlhe cooling may be cilected by a circulating duid, a raretied gas orother cooling agent in the pipes, and in practice the cold air will dowfreely out at the bottom of the refrigerating-ehamber into thepreserving-apartment, and the warmer air from the latter, which contains moisture will pass into the refrigerati ng chamber at the top, thepipes affording ample provision for this automatic and continuouscirculation of the air inclosed by and confined in the preserving andrefrigerating chambers.

rlhe internal motion or circulation of the air is effected by thecooling-pipes, which are generally covered with frost or frozenmoisture, and the air by contact with the pipes is rendered exceedinglydry by giving up its heat and moisture upon the freezing-surface of thepipes, and consequently by its increased weight or gravity, due to itscold dry state, it falls from the pipes or condensing-chamber to theprescrving-apartment below, where its temperature is somewhat raised andits capacity for taking moisture increased.

If from any cause-such as accident to the machinery supplying the fluidor other cooling medium to the pipes or cylinders-it should be desirableto employ blocks of ice to produce a low temperature, such ice can besupplied to the receiver created by the vertical and horizontal lines ofpipes, such pipes constituting bottom and side walls to support the ice.The process of circulation will in such event be the same, differingtherefrom in degree only.

The insulated walls ofthe preserving-chamber and the non-heat-conductingwalls of the refrigerating or condensing chamber are important forperfect and effective refrigeration, andas the preserving-chamber isclosed the circulation is only in the inclosed air within the structure,so that cold dry air is always supplied to the articles to be preserved.

Inasmuch as the drip-pan is under the vertical and horizontal lines ofpipe, it will be obvious that water from the ice or from condensedmoisture will be received into the pan and can escape by a conduit ortube, 13, thus preventing the drippings from falling upon the Hoor ofthe preserving-chamber.

By my invention I utilize the force of the volatile gas or other coolingagent in the pipes to effect the automatic .and continuous circulationof the inclosed air through the two chambers, which provides averyefficient and desirable means of refrigeration and preservation.

I am aware that it is not broadly new to circulate a refrigerating agentthrough pipes or coils in a refrigerating apparatus; also, that pipeshave been arranged in a cluster to constitute a gas receiver or holderfor cooling-l ehambers; also, that apreserving-chamber has been providedwith non-conducting walls and with an ice-box having non-conductingwalls, and in communication with the preservingchamber at top andbottom, the bottom wall of the ice-box having a horizontal layer ofvpipes for containing water to be cooled by t-he conducting wallsconstituting one side and the A bottom of the condensing-chamber, andthe bottom wall being within the preserving-chamber to provide adrip-pan, and the pipes or cylinders for the passage of the coolingagent, said pipes or cylinders being arranged horizontally andvertically above the drip-pan to constitute a receiver for ice withinthe con (lensing-chamber, substantially as described.

V3. The combination, with the preservingapartment, thecondensing-chamber, and the drip-pan in the bottom of the latter, f thelines of pipes for the cooling agent arranged to create the bottom walland side walls of a receiver for containing and supporting pieces orblocks of ice within the condensing-chamber, said condensing-chamberbeing in communication with the preserving-apartment by top and bottompassages, and the vertical lines of pipes composing theice-receiver,being adjacent to the vertical wall of the condensingchamber and thewalls ofthe preserving-apartment, respectively, substantially asdescribed.

4. The combination of a preserving-apartment, a condensing chamberhaving its upper and lower portions in communication therewith, andconstituting a drip-pan, and lines of pipes or cylinders arranged in thecondensingchamber to receive the refrigerating gas or other agent, andalso constituting the horizontal bottom and vertically-arranged. sidewalls of a receiver for containing and supporting blocks or pieces ofice within the condensingchamber, whereby an automatic circulation ofinclosed air is effected through the preserving and condensing chamber,substantially as described.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

ANDREXV J. CHASE.

w Vitnesses:

EUGENE B. HAGAR,

F'rsi-IER AMES.

lIO

